Officials hopeful as Los Alamos fires rage

(CNN) -- While firefighters haven't gotten the upper hand in a stubborn wildfire burning near Los Alamos, New Mexico, a sense of accomplishment was evident as the battle headed into Thursday.

"We're in the best shape since this thing started," said Fire Chief Doug Tucker, who told reporters that Wednesday was make-it-or-break-it day.

Even with the progress, the nearby flames will keep the Los Alamos National Laboratory closed through at least Friday, a statement on the lab's website said.

"What I witnessed today was an incredibly professional job by men and women who are risking their lives to save our community and this laboratory," Charles McMillan, the lab director, said. "I could feel the heat of the fire on my face as I watched from the roof of our Emergency Operations Center."

The Los Alamos fire, which is officially called the Las Conchas fire, has forced nearly 10,000 people from their homes in the town. Officials estimated the fire consumed an additional 15,000 to 20,000 acres Wednesday -- bringing the total to about 70,000 acres -- but they remained optimistic.

Jerome MacDonald, operations section chief for the multi-state southwest area incident management team, said fire officials plan to flank the fire on the east side Thursday in an attempt to curb high winds predicted from the southwest.

Concerns were raised that the wildfire could put the Los Alamos lab at risk, as well as waste or other toxic materials stored at the site.

But Tucker said that the waste is stored in drums that are kept on a blacktop with no vegetation around and are safe from fire. If the fire should get too close to the drums, firefighters were ready to use foam to ensure that nothing would be released into the environment, he said.

The Las Conchas fire began on private land Sunday and expanded into the Santa Fe National Forest and Jemez Ranger District, according to InciWeb, an online database that keeps track of natural disasters such as fires and floods.

In a news statement released Wednesday, the Santa Fe National Forest and Valles Caldera National Preserve said that parts of both preserves would close to the public until the fire is more controlled.

Parts of the national forest have been placed under "stage III" fire restrictions, meaning all areas are off-limits for use unless otherwise posted.

The Las Conchas Fire touches the south border of the lab's 40-square-mile facility and comes close to the west border, according to Tucker.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez warned citizens to avoid using fireworks on the July Fourth holiday and the rest of the season.

The Las Conchas fire is one of several burning in the region.

The Donaldson and Game fires south of the town of Hondo and U.S. Highway 70 have merged into one fire that has consumed an estimated 43,290 acres and is 0% contained, according to the New Mexico Fire Information website.

Evacuations were ordered for Alamo Canyon Wednesday as the Donaldson fire continues to threaten parts of Lincoln County.

The Pacheco fire continues to burn in the Pecos Wilderness, two miles north of the Santa Fe Ski Basin. It has scorched 10,000 acres since it began June 18.

The blaze was 24% contained early Thursday, with the potential for growth considered low, according to InciWeb.

CNN's Ed Payne, Molly Green and Craig Bell contributed to this report

CNN

Fires nearing Florida wildlife refuge

The Honey Prairie fire united with the Paxton Road fire Tuesday, the U.S. Forest Service said.NEW: Florida Gov. Rick Scott declares a state of emergency526 firefighters are working to protect the Okefenokee swamp90% of a public boardwalk is burned

(CNN) -- Two fires have merged, coming dangerously close to protected areas in Florida's Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.

The so-called Honey Prairie fire, which has been burning since late April, united with another blaze called the Paxton Road fire Tuesday, the U.S. Forest Service said.

Working around the clock, 526 firefighters have been deployed to combat the flames.

"We've got lots of crews out there trying to hold that line, trying to protect that wildlife refuge," Forest Service public information officer Haven Cook said.

Cook said while the fire is 75% contained, dealing with a fire in swamp can be tricky.

"When we're dealing with a situation like this, the fire can lay down, creep under all that peat, and so when we have significant weather like a wind event, it can spark and develop an active flame front very quickly from there."

The fire reached the eastern edge of Okefenokee Swamp to Chesser Island, a tourist attraction that housed an observation tower and a 4,000-foot boardwalk that stretched out into the middle of the swamp.

"The tower is fine; so is the historic Chesser Island homestead," Cook said. "But the boardwalk did burn; about 90% of it burned."

Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency Monday, citing the ongoing danger of wildfires and drought conditions.

Meteorologists say there are moderately good chances for rain toward the end of the week, but thunderstorms may also be in the forecast.

"This fire can go on for weeks until we get a good drenching rain," Cook said. "The firefighters are going to be monitoring this and watching this for two, maybe three weeks because it's been such a dry year."

CNN

Quran-burning pastor accidentally fires gun on eve of Mich. anti-Muslim rally

Terry Jones, the Quran-burning pastor from Florida who is in Michigan to try to mount an anti-Muslim rally this evening, accidentally fired his .40-caliber handgun while leaving a TV studio parking lot Thursday night, the Detroit Free Press reports, quoting police.

The 59-year-old pastor of the Dove World Ootreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., is in court today to press his plans to rally today in front of the Islamic Center of America, in Dearborn, a heavily Muslim city.

Dearborn police insist that he pay security costs estimated at $46,000, the newspaper reports.

The shooting incident occurred in Southfield as Jones was getting in the passenger side of his car. The Taurus handgun went off, sending a bullet into the floorboard, Southfield Police Lt. Nick Loussia said today, according to the Free Press.

"Officers heard a gunshot, approached the vehicle, asked Mr. Jones if he was OK," Loussia said. "He was, and they also observed he had a gun in his hand."

Officers took the weapon, and also found another hand gun near the driver, a man from Florida traveling with Jones. Both men were carrying valid Florida concealed weapon licenses, which are recognized in Michigan, Loussia said. The men were allowed to leave without further action

Jones told reporters outside today outside the Dearborn courthouse that the firing was "an accident."

Tags:Terry JonesIslamic Center of AmericaDearborn, Mich. .div-wrapper

View the Original article

Dry winds hamper efforts to battle Texas fires

By the CNN Wire Staff STORY HIGHLIGHTSMore than a million acres burn in TexasOn Wednesday, emergency personnel respond to four new firesThe new blazes are across more than 1,000 acres West Texas is in the middle of an extended droughtAre you there? Share your photos and video.

Dallas (CNN) -- Fire-friendly conditions are expected to return Thursday in various parts of Texas, where thousands of firefighters have been battling blazes that have scorched more than a million acres.

And Mother Nature's not cooperating -- warm, dry winds are blowing across the already bone-dry landscape.

"Even if we get 2 inches of rain, the ground's going to eat it up," said David Hennig, a meteorologist in Midland, Texas. "We need a pattern shift."

High-res photos: Wildfires blaze across Texas

West Texas averages nearly 15 inches of rain a year, according to Hennig.

In the past six months, only 13-hundredths of an inch of rain have been recorded in that part of the state.

View the Original article

Fires burn across Texas with no end in sight

Hundreds of fires threaten TexasSTORY HIGHLIGHTSSpring winds combined with dry conditions typical of late summer have "not boded well"A Forest Service spokeswoman says conditions in Texas are the driest since 1917Authorities have responded to 7,807 fires across more than 1.5 million acres since this year's wildfire season beganIn southwest Austin, 10 homes suffered major damage Dallas (CNN) -- Dozens of large fires burned out of control Monday in Texas in what officials described as unprecedented conditions that show no signs of abating soon.

"We're experiencing conditions never seen in Texas before," said Marq Webb, a public information officer with the Texas Forest Service, which was devoting massive resources to the effort. "Yesterday, we had 1,400 people and that number will go up today," Webb said Monday in a telephone interview from the service's incident command center in Merkel just west of Abilene.

In all, the Forest Service has been asked to help battle fires covering some 700,000 acres, he said.

Thirty-one fires were being fought in East Texas; another 11 fires in West Texas, officials said.

RELATED TOPICSFiresWildfiresRick Perry"We've had 19 consecutive days of just super-dry weather, relative humidities in the single digits," said Forest Service spokeswoman C.J. Norvell in Midland. "What we're seeing right now is winds that are typical of spring, but everything else is typical of late summer -- no rain, vegetation that's just super dry. When you combine those two, it really has not boded well."

The Wildcat Fire just north of San Angelo has led to the evacuation of hundreds of people from their homes, Norvell said. The same fire threatens three small communities just north of Saint Angelo -- Robert Lee, Bronte and Tennyson, she said.

A predicted change in wind direction from south to southwest could worsen the prognosis, she said. "This little change is going to test some infrastructure and fire lines that we've set up," she said.

The fires have a variety of causes -- some of them acts of nature, such as lightning strikes -- but most of them acts of man, said Webb. Those include anything from fence welding to debris burning, despite the fact that burn bans are in effect for 195 of the state's 254 counties, he said.

Texas authorities have made an arrest in connection with one of hundreds of blazes scorching the state in what a Forest Service official called the "perfect storm for wildfires."

A man was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment, which is a felony under Texas law, Austin Fire Department Battalion Chief Palmer Buck said early Monday. The man, whom authorities did not immediately identify, was being held under a $50,000 bond.

According to Buck, the man started a campfire at a homeless camp in a remote area, which got out of control and prompted evacuations. The fire burned about 60 acres.

"We're experiencing conditions we've never seen in Texas before," he said. "We have a huge area of Texas with abundant fuels and they are tinder dry -- and I'm talking about probably half of the state."

Monday's forecast was worse than Sunday's, "and tomorrow's supposed to be worse than today," he said. Though temperatures are expected to dip Wednesday, they were predicted to ramp back up on Thursday and Friday.

Such weather has taxed the resources available to fight the fires. "We're stretched pretty thin right now," Webb said.

Conditions this spring are the driest they've been in Texas since 1917, said a Texas Forest Service spokeswoman.

Authorities have responded to 7,807 fires across more than 1.5 million acres since this year's wildfire season began, Gov. Rick Perry wrote over the weekend in a letter to President Barack Obama. Perry requested that the federal government declare Texas a disaster area. Fires have affected all but two of the state's 254 counties.

Perry noted that one firefighter has died and 18 others have been injured, while 244 homes have been destroyed and another 8,514 threatened residences "saved."

In the Possum Kingdom complex west of Fort Worth, approximately 90 head of cattle were killed by the fire, said Webb.

In southwest Austin, 10 homes suffered major damage and six suffered minor damage in a 100-acre area, said Matt Curtis, a spokesman for Mayor Lee Leffingwell. Curtis said Monday morning that the fire was contained, though firefighters were expected to spend the day looking for potential flareups and hot spots.

Officials were to decide later in the day whether to allow evacuees -- some 50 of whom spent the night at a shelter -- to return home, Curtis said.

"Luckily, this fire happened in a somewhat unpopulated part of that neighborhood," he said. The multi-jurisdictional effort included the Austin Police Department, the Austin-Travis County Fire Department, the Austin-Travis County EMS, the Travis County Sheriff's Department and the Texas Forest Service.

"The mayor, who has lived in Austin all 72 of his years described this as the largest fire he had ever seen in Austin and largest multi-jurisdictional effort," Curtis said.

CNN's Leslie Tripp and Stephanie Gallman contributed to this report.

View the Original article

Oklahoma fires force evacuation of hundreds of homes

Oklahoma fires force the evacuation of more than 1,000 homes By the CNN Wire Staff STORY HIGHLIGHTS NEW: It has burned approximately 3,500 acresNEW: A large fire west of Lawton, Oklahoma, is about 65% contained In nearby Texas, a firefighter dies after flames hit his truck (CNN) -- Strong winds whipped up two wildfires in southern Oklahoma on Friday, forcing the evacuation of more than 1,000 homes.

The first fire, a large grass fire, burned west of Lawton, which is about 80 miles southwest of Oklahoma City. It forced people in approximately 900 homes and the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company to evacuate, according to Comanche County officials.

Roughly 50 firefighters were working to battle the blaze, officials said in a statement Friday night, but helicopters could not be brought in because of the strong winds. The fire, which was about 65% contained, has burned some 3,500 acres.

Seven structures, including barns, sheds and outbuildings, have been lost so far, officials said. One home was damaged.

The National Weather Service issued a high wind warning for Lawton on Friday, warning of possible early evening gusts of up to 60 miles per hour. The weather service said strong winds would likely complicate fire-fighting efforts.

Crews were also battling a second blaze in northern Comanche County that was about 65% contained Friday night, officials said. Evacuations were issued for about 130 homes in that area. Four unoccupied structures have been destroyed in the fire, which has scorched about 2,200 acres, officials said.

The American Red Cross opened an evacuation shelter to help house families forced from their homes.

Meanwhile, in northern Texas, a firefighter died when flames hit his truck, said Marq Webb, spokesman for the Texas State Lone Star Incident Management Team. The firefighter was a local firefighter from Eastland County, he said.

View the Original article